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THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM ON TOURISM
BY MARK BENNETT AND HARRY BRAY

Introduction
Egypt an al- Gama’a al- Islamiya
The Kenyan tourist decline
The global effects on tourism of September 11th attacks
Conclusions
Bibliography

1. Introduction

The correlation between tourism and terrorism is undeniable in the modern era due to the strength of the industry and the fact that these honey potsites such as the pyramids of Geza act as an ideal target place for terrorist attacks in order to cause large amounts of social and economic disruption.

The economy in the 21st century is dominated by three industries telecommunications, information technology and tourism. Tourism provides 10.5% of global employment with in excess of 25% in areas such as the Caribbean. It has been estimatedthat by 2008 more then 100 million people world wide will be employed in the sector according to the WTO (World tourism organization)

The travel and tourism industries have grown by 500% in the last 25 years and it is estimated that in the year 2007 tourists will spend US$884 billion in foreign countries on tourism related activities. For many countries in the developing world tourism is the mostcritical form of income in terms of GDP and therefore a major influence in any economic development. The problem is for many of these less economically developed countries is that any political issues they may have could cause conflict with other groups of people who have certain political beliefs could lead to the application of terrorist attacks mainly due to religious and political opinionsand/or land ownership.

These actions of terrorist activity on these tourist areas will most definitely have an adverse effect on the countries economy. According to Adam Blake and Thea Sinclair accoeding to the WTO, “The contribution of tourism and travel to both industrialized and developing countries is now so great that any downturns in the level of activity are a cause for concern. Therepercussions extend beyond activities directly associated with tourism, notably airlines, hotels and catering, to sectors that supply intermediate or final goods that are purchased by firms and employees in the industry, so that all sectors of the economy are affected to a greater or lesser effect.” In reality the quotation relates to the global impact of terrorist attacks and shows how the multipliereffect can work in reverse. For example, an initial decline of tourism may cause a negative impact on employment, homelessness, crime and other economic and social implications which are caused by terrorism, crime and the closure of borders.

There are a number of supporting case studies where these terrorist attacks have caused a number of problems for tourist activity in a country includingEgypt and the governments confrontations with al-gama’a al-Islamiya where they targeted international tourists in a five year period from 1992, as well as Kenya where tourism has declined due to the bombing of a US embassy in Nairobi, the beach hotel in Mombassa in 2002 and the failed missile strike against a plane carrying Israeli tourists. However, referring back to the multiplier effect, tourismhad managed to sustain any continuous loss of negative tourism growth after a terrorist attack in their relative country until the September 11th attacks which changed tourism’s relationship with terrorism significantly. This involved the hijacking of planes by al Qaeda in New York. The industry had taken a few declines throughout its existence for example during the Gulf war where global tourismdecreased from 21.5% in 1990 to 3.2% in 1991 a but this soon improved to 13.5% in 1992. However, with the September 11th attacks the tourism industry was at a peak with high passenger numbers and success from the major tour operators and therefore the implications were even more dramatic not only for the tourism sectors in America but globally and arguably causing general economic problems...